Privacy Policy — Afterlife
1. Summary
Afterlife ("the App") records, transcribes, and helps you study sermons. It is built so that the things you create — recordings, transcripts, notes, highlights, bookmarks, saved moments, search queries, and the scripture you read — stay on your device.
We do not operate an account system. We never ask you to sign in, and we do not know your identity.
The App does use the network for four narrowly defined purposes, described in full in Section 4: downloading the on-device speech model, Apple's own speech assets, processing your App Store purchase, and usage statistics and crash reporting that help us understand and improve the App.
2. Who this policy applies to
This policy applies to everyone who uses the App on iOS or iPadOS. It does not cover the App Store itself, which is operated by Apple under Apple's own privacy policy.
3. What stays on your device
The following is created by you and is stored only in the App's local storage on your device. It is not transmitted to us, and we have no ability to access, read, or recover it:
- Sermon audio recordings and imported audio files
- Transcripts, including live and corrected transcripts
- Your notes, highlights, bookmarks, and saved moments
- Playlists, memory cards, and review history
- Search queries and their results
- Which scripture passages you open, mark, or annotate
- Speaker and sermon metadata you enter or that is derived on your device
- Your settings, including language, appearance, reminder, and voice preferences
Recording, transcription, summarisation, indexing, search, and scripture analysis are all performed on your device. Transcription uses Apple's on-device speech recognition. Read-aloud uses a neural speech model that runs on your device.
iCloud and CloudKit synchronisation are disabled in the App. Your library is not backed up to any server we control. It may be included in your own iPhone or iCloud device backup if you have device backup enabled. Such backups are controlled by Apple and are governed by Apple's privacy practices.
Because we hold no server-side copy of your library, deleting the App removes its locally stored library data from the device. We cannot restore that library for you. Section 9 explains how to export it first.
4. When the App uses the network, and what is sent
4.1 Downloading the on-device speech model
The first time the App prepares read-aloud, it downloads a neural text-to-speech model from Hugging Face (huggingface.co), which hosts the model files.
This is an ordinary file download. The request carries standard network information such as your IP address and connection metadata, which is handled by Hugging Face under its own privacy policy.
No sermon, transcript, note, or scripture content is sent to Hugging Face as part of this model download.
Once the model is installed, read-aloud runs locally on the device.
4.2 Apple speech assets
Apple's speech recognition and system voices may download language or speech assets through iOS. These requests are handled by the operating system and are governed by Apple's privacy practices.
4.3 Purchases
Premium subscriptions are sold through Apple's In-App Purchase. Payment is handled by Apple; we do not receive your full payment card details.
We use RevenueCat, Inc. to verify and manage subscription entitlements.
RevenueCat receives a pseudonymous application user identifier together with transaction and entitlement information associated with the App Store purchase, such as which product was purchased, whether the entitlement is active, and relevant subscription status information.
We do not operate an Afterlife account system, and we do not intentionally attach your name or e-mail address to this RevenueCat identifier.
This processing is used to provide paid features and support subscription entitlement and purchase restoration.
RevenueCat's privacy policy is available at https://www.revenuecat.com/privacy .
4.4 Usage statistics and crash reports
The App uses Google Firebase Analytics and Firebase Crashlytics, provided by Google LLC, to understand how the App is used and to diagnose defects.
What may be collected:
- Which screens are opened and the order in which they are used
- Which features are used — for example, that a recording was started, read-aloud was used, a search was run, or the subscription screen was opened or dismissed
- The outcome of operations — for example, whether a purchase succeeded, processing completed, or the speech model installed
- Coarse magnitudes expressed as ranges rather than exact values. For example, a recording may be reported as falling within a duration range rather than reporting its precise duration.
- App or installation characteristics such as subscription entitlement status, selected read-aloud engine, appearance setting, and library-size range
- Technical information Firebase may collect, such as an app instance identifier, vendor identifier (IDFV) where applicable, device model, operating system version, App version, language, and approximate country or region information
- Crash and diagnostic information such as stack traces, device or application state, and internal error codes
What our custom Analytics events do not include:
Our custom Analytics event parameters are designed to use fixed developer-defined values rather than user-entered free text. We do not intentionally send the following content through our custom Analytics events:
- Sermon audio or transcript content
- Sermon titles, speaker names, or pastor names
- Your notes, highlights, or annotations
- Your search query text
- The specific book, chapter, or verse of scripture you are reading
- Names of files you import
- Your name, e-mail address, phone number, or contacts
- Your precise location
What we do not do:
- We do not use Apple's Advertising Identifier (IDFA) for advertising or tracking.
- The App does not use an advertising SDK.
- Google Signals, advertising personalisation, advertising storage, and advertising conversion measurement are disabled in our Analytics configuration.
- We do not assign a custom Analytics user ID tied to an Afterlife account because the App does not operate an account system.
- We do not use this data to track you across apps or websites owned by other companies.
Your control. Usage statistics and crash diagnostics are optional and are disabled by default. You can choose to enable them in Settings › Privacy › Usage statistics, and you can turn them off again at any time.
When enabled, the App may send usage statistics through Firebase Analytics and diagnostic reports through Firebase Crashlytics as described above.
Turning this setting off stops future Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics collection on that device and resets the local Firebase Analytics identifier for this installation. Data already transmitted before you turned the setting off is not automatically deleted and remains subject to Google's applicable retention and deletion controls.
Google's privacy policy is available at https://policies.google.com/privacy .
Firebase privacy information is available at https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy .
5. Device permissions
| Permission | Why the App asks | What happens if you refuse |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | To record sermons. Audio is written to local storage on your device. | Recording is unavailable. Importing audio files still works. |
| Speech Recognition | To transcribe recorded audio using Apple's speech recognition capabilities. | Transcription is unavailable. Audio can still be recorded and played. |
| Notifications | To send reminders that you enable, which are composed and scheduled on your device. | No reminders are sent. Nothing else changes. |
Every permission can be changed at any time in the iOS Settings app.
Reminder content is generated locally by the App and is not sent to our servers.
6. Legal bases for processing (EEA, United Kingdom, and Switzerland)
Where the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation applies, the following legal bases may apply to our processing:
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Providing the App's core features | Performance of a contract — Article 6(1)(b) |
| Verifying and restoring subscription entitlements | Performance of a contract — Article 6(1)(b) |
| Downloading the on-device speech model | Performance of a contract — Article 6(1)(b) |
| Usage statistics | Consent — Article 6(1)(a): usage statistics are collected only if you choose to enable them. You can withdraw your consent at any time in Settings › Privacy. |
| Crash and error reporting | Consent — Article 6(1)(a): crash and diagnostic reports are collected only if you choose to enable usage statistics and diagnostics. You can withdraw your consent at any time in Settings › Privacy. |
7. International transfers
Google and RevenueCat may process information on infrastructure located outside your country, including in the United States.
Where applicable, these providers maintain contractual and legal mechanisms intended to support international transfers of personal data, including Standard Contractual Clauses or other transfer mechanisms required by applicable law.
More information about their processing and international transfer practices is available in their respective privacy documentation.
8. Retention
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Everything you create (Section 3) | Stored locally on your device until you delete the data or remove the App. We hold no server-side copy of your library. |
| Usage statistics | User-level and event-level Analytics data is retained according to our configured Google Analytics retention setting, currently up to 14 months. Some aggregated reporting may be retained or handled separately by Google according to its service configuration and policies. |
| Crash reports | Retained according to the applicable Firebase Crashlytics retention practices and our service configuration. |
| Subscription entitlement records | Retained by RevenueCat as needed to provide and maintain subscription entitlement functionality and according to RevenueCat's applicable retention practices. |
9. Your rights and how to exercise them
Because the App has no account system and we hold no server-side copy of your sermon library, many controls relating to your library are available directly in the App:
- Access and portability. Settings › Privacy › Export allows you to create an export of your library that you can save or share.
- Erasure. Settings › Privacy › Delete all data permanently removes the App's locally stored sermon library and associated local data from the device.
- Control over usage statistics and diagnostics. Settings › Privacy › Usage statistics lets you enable or disable future Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics collection on that device.
Depending on where you live, applicable privacy laws may provide rights such as access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, or the right to lodge a complaint with a competent supervisory authority.
Residents of California and certain other US states may also have rights regarding personal information under applicable state privacy laws.
We do not sell personal information or use personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.
To make a privacy request that cannot be completed directly in the App, contact supportafterlifeapp@gmail.com .
Because technical Analytics identifiers are not associated with an Afterlife account or identity that we maintain, we may not always be able to identify a specific Analytics record as belonging to a particular individual.
10. Children
The App is not directed to children under 13, or a higher age where applicable local law requires it.
We do not knowingly collect personal data from children in violation of applicable law.
If you believe a child has provided personal information through the App in a way that requires our attention, contact supportafterlifeapp@gmail.com .
11. Security
Your locally stored content is protected by iOS application sandboxing and by the security mechanisms provided by your device and operating system.
Network communications used by the App and its service providers use encrypted HTTPS/TLS connections where supported by the relevant services.
We do not maintain a server-side copy of your sermon library, which limits the amount of user-created sermon content available through our own systems.
No method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure, and absolute security cannot be guaranteed.
12. Third-party service providers
| Provider | Purpose | Privacy policy |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Inc. | App distribution, In-App Purchase, device services, speech recognition, and system voices | Apple Privacy |
| Google LLC (Firebase) | Usage Analytics, diagnostics, and crash reporting | Firebase Privacy |
| RevenueCat, Inc. | Subscription entitlement management | RevenueCat Privacy |
| Hugging Face, Inc. | Hosting of the downloadable on-device speech model | Hugging Face Privacy |
13. Changes to this policy
If we change how the App handles data, we may update this Privacy Policy and revise the "Last updated" date above.
Where required by applicable law, we will provide additional notice of material changes.
14. Contact
HASAN BALKI
Appendix A — App Store "App Privacy" declaration
The following is intended to correspond to the App's current App Store privacy disclosures. App Store Connect disclosures should always be kept consistent with the behaviour of the production version of the App and the SDKs it includes.
| Data type | Purpose | Linked to you | Used for tracking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Device ID (IDFV) | Analytics | No | No |
| Product Interaction | Analytics | No | No |
| Crash Data | App Functionality | No | No |
| Performance Data | App Functionality | No | No |
| Other Diagnostic Data | App Functionality | No | No |
| Purchase History | App Functionality and Analytics | No | No |
Based on the configuration described in this policy, the App does not intentionally collect Contact Info, Health & Fitness data, Contacts, User Content, Search History, or Browsing History through our Analytics implementation.
These App Store privacy disclosures must be reviewed whenever the App's data practices, Firebase configuration, RevenueCat configuration, SDKs, or Analytics events change.